Not forceful enough

And nobody’s talk is cheaper, it would seem, than our voluble President’s. On Saturday, Donald Trump took Twitter-shots at basketball superstar Stephen Curry, after Curry said he wouldn’t accept an invitation to the White House to celebrate the Golden State Warriors’ NBA championship. And the previous day, at a rally in Alabama, Trump used an expletive to describe NFL players who have sat or taken a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality against African Americans.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired,’” Trump told the overwhelmingly white crowd.

And here’s what I'd love to see, in response to the President’s outrageous remarks: a players’ strike.

That would’t tame Trump, of course, who will continue run his mouth (and his Twitter handle) recklessly. But it would make it clear that the players stand firmly behind the campaign for racial justice in policing, as well as the rights of everyone to express themselves about it.

Sure, several players tweeted — correctly — that Trump’s comments were both ill-informed and inappropriate. And on Sunday, dozens knelt in silent protests while two teams stayed in their locker rooms during the National Anthem.

I’m glad they stood up to our blowhard President. But it’s time for them to sit down, at least until the NFL satisfies a simple demand: hire Colin Kaepernick, who is quite obviously being kept out of the league for his politics.

Kaepernick, of course, is the African-American quarterback whose refusal to stand during the national anthem last fall ignited the entire controversy. He opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March, and no other team has seen fit to sign him since then.

It’s hard to see that as anything other than a penalty for Kaepernick’s protests. We’re talking about a super-athletic pass-and-run guy who led his team to the Super Bowl in 2013. And even last year, playing for a woeful 49ers squad, Kaepernick managed to complete 59% of his passes and rush for almost 500 yards.

The NFL’s 32 teams carry at least two quarterbacks, and some of them have three. And if you think that Kaepernick isn’t as good as the worst backup in the league, you haven’t been watching very closely. He’s arguably better than several starters, too, including the Miami Dolphins’ Jay Cutler and the Jets’ Josh McCown.

So long as Kaepernick remains out of work, however, Trump wins. Remember, the President wants the NFL to fire anyone who protests during the National Anthem. For all practical purposes, the league has fired Kaepernick. And nothing short of a strike seems likely to change that.

It’s happened before. In 1965, black players boycotted the American Football League’s All-Star Game in New Orleans to protest racial segregation in the city. When they got to the airport, they couldn’t find cabs that would take them downtown. And in the French Quarter, restaurants and nightclubs wouldn’t seat them either.

The league was forced to move the game to Houston, which was more willing to accommodate the African-American players. “Someone had to take a stand and stop players from being treated as second-class citizens,” one of them recalled.

Back then, football players were required to hold their helmets in their left hands and salute the flag with the other one while the National Anthem was playing. The league also barred talking, gum chewing and “shoulder-pad slamming” during the Anthem.

Players have a lot more freedom now, thanks to people like Kaepernick. And of course, they make tons more money. So it’s time for them to put their money where their mouths are, by taking a knee until Kaepernick comes back.

Some fans have already done that, in their own way. Back in August, hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside NFL headquarters in New York in support of Kaepernick. And more than 175,000 people have signed a petition at Change.org, pledging to boycott the NFL until someone signs him.

Ironically, our Twitter-happy President also called for his own NFL boycott — not to support national-anthem protests, but to denounce them. “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag and Country, you will see change take place fast,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Fire or suspend!”

The NFL has such a huge fan base that it can easily weather such boycotts, from any side of the political spectrum. What it cannot survive — and what it fears the most + is a boycott by the players. Talk really is cheap. And until the players do more than that, nothing will really change.

Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author (with Emily Robertson) of “The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools.”